The Plum Varsity Cheer Team

She has had her hands full, coaching 24 varsity cheerleaders at Plum while overseeing the other 30 girls on the JV and junior high squads. But Jessica Boynton, head cheerleading coach for the Mustangs, has remained focused on her goal of building a strong program. "I'm only in the second year, [still] working out the kinks, finding out what works and what doesn't," she says. "I want them to be able to believe in themselves, and carry confidence they gain in cheerleading into everyday life." "Cheerleading has always been my passion," Boynton says. "I enjoy coaching the girls: performing, stunts, competing." The Mustang's two captains, Krista Guido & Chelsea Lachowicz worked really hard this year, according to the coach. "They did a good job helping organize and lead the squad. We only had seven seniors, and all seven have done an especially great job with the younger girls by setting examples," Jessica says.

You can see when she is with the squad that already, like other relatively new cheerleading coaches across the Alle-Kiski region, she has the confidence and respect of the girls she coaches. It's probably from the depth of training and experience she has. She sees many of the girls every day in the under-construction, hallowed halls of Plum High School. That happens when you are the Health and Physical Education teacher there.

Boynton, whose favorite cheerleading stunts are transitional pyramids and basket tosses, is well seasoned in cheering experience too. She previously coached cheerleading one and a half years at Franklin Regional. She was a cheerleader at IUP, captaining the squad there for 3 years. A graduate of Highlands, Jessica began cheering in the seventh grade. That kind of ground-up experience combined with heads-up training in the mystical, medical fine arts of teaching health and P.E. is not an easy commodity to come by--especially in this day when those two particular teacher-training programs are much more involved and include much more of the sciences. Boynton's enthusiasm and experience is surely a welcomed presence in the Mustang stable of excellent teachers, coaches and sponsors.